Establish a national mental health strategy and a suicide prevention strategy to address the growing anxieties plaguing Canadians regarding inequality and affordability, the growing precariousness of work and housing, the climate crisis, social isolation, resurgent racial and ethno-nationalism and other harms and risks.

Develop and fund a national dementia strategy in collaboration with health professionals and provincial/territorial governments, to improve quality of life for patients and care givers, increase awareness, and reduce stigma.

Amend the Medical Assistance in Dying legislation to ensure that everyone has the choice of dying with dignity. This includes allowing advance directives and guaranteeing the right to draw up a “living will” that gives individuals the power to limit or refuse medical intervention and treatment.

Establish a Canadian Sustainable Generations Fund to make critical investments in trades, apprenticeships and education required for the transition to a green economy. These investments in skills training will complement targeted national infrastructure investments in energy efficiency, renewable energy production, digital upgrades, clean-tech manufacturing and emerging technologies, tourism, the creative economy, and the care economy.

Establish a National Community Benefit Strategy that leverages public procurement to maximize opportunities for social hiring and procurement, including Indigenous procurement, youth employment and demand-driven skills development programs.

Enhance the federal Youth Employment and Skills Strategy by creating a Community and Environment Service Corps. This will provide $1 billion annually to municipalities to hire Canadian youth.

Launch a massive energy efficiency retrofit of residential, commercial and institutional buildings. To make a renewable energy transition possible, we have to eliminate energy waste. According to trade union research, this will create over four million jobs.

Finance building retrofits and installation of renewable energy technologies such as solar and heat pumps through direct grants, zero-interest loans and repayments based on energy/cost savings.

Change the national building code to require new construction to meet net-zero emission standards by 2030 and work with the provinces to enact it.

Implement a major ramp-up of renewable energy with 100% of Canada's electricity coming from renewable sources by 2030, including in remote and northern communities; Implement a national electrical grid strategy to enable renewable energy flow between provinces and territories.

Implement a major ramp-up of renewable electricity. By 2030, 100 per cent of Canada’s electricity will come from renewable sources. This includes getting remote and northern communities off diesel generators.

To enable renewable electricity to flow across provincial and territorial boundaries, implement a national electrical grid strategy, including building connections between eastern Manitoba and western Ontario, and upgrading connections between New Brunswick and Nova Scotia. This will be paid for with money now allocated for expanding the Trans Mountain pipeline ($1.6 billion announced in December 2018, towards an estimated $10-13 billion), and create thousands of jobs nation-wide.

Work with provincial governments to determine which orphaned oil and gas wells are geologically suited to produce geothermal energy. This will turn provincial liabilities into potential income-generating renewable energy, ideally in partnership with First Nations. Those with weaker geothermal energy potential may be used in district energy, including for greenhouses.

Approve no new pipelines, or coal, oil, or gas drilling or mining; Continue extant oil and gas operations on a declining basis with bitumen production phased out between 2030 and 2035; Ban fracking; Cancel the Trans Mountain pipeline.

No new pipelines, or coal, oil or gas drilling or mining, including offshore wells, will be approved. Existing oil and gas operations will continue on a declining basis, with bitumen production phased out between 2030 and 2035. Hydraulic fracturing (fracking) operations will be banned outright due to impacts on groundwater quality, methane release and seismic activity.

Cancel the Trans Mountain pipeline (and its $10-13 billion cost) as well as other subsidies to fossil fuel industries, totaling (sic) an additional several billion dollars a year. This money will be redirected to the Canadian Grid Strategy and renewable energy transition.

Set targets to reduce production of solid waste; Hold manufacturers financially responsible for waste; Require an increasing percentage of recycled plastic feedstock in durable plastic products; Require all products to be fully recyclable; Phase out export of solid waste.

Set national targets to reduce the production of solid waste and work with provincial, territorial and Indigenous governments to achieve those targets.

Implement an extended producer responsibility program to hold manufacturers financially responsible for the waste associated with the production, distribution, packaging and end of life of their products.

Require all products to be fully recyclable using readily available processes.

Phase out Canada’s export of solid waste to other countries. If we produce it, we should manage it.

Establish a plastics lifecycle advisory group, comprising representatives from all sectors in the lifecycle of plastic products, scientists, and federal and provincial government representatives, to provide guidance and recommendations in establishing plastics biodegradability, recyclability and sustainability standards.

Adopt a precautionary approach to limit the production and use of persistent contaminants in plastic, based on evolving research into the human health impacts of micro-fibres and other micro-plastics.

In consultation with food distributors and sellers, set 2022 reusable and refillable packaging targets for supermarkets and other food stores.

By January 2022, ban the production, distribution and sale of all unnecessary or non-essential petroleum-based single-use plastics, including: carry-out and produce bags, balloons, straws, plates, cups, lids, cutlery, cotton buds, drink stirrers, cigarette filters, and plastic water bottles (less than four litres); packaging, including multilayer packaging, packing straps, all multipack rings, takeaway packaging, and all expanded polystyrene (styrofoam) packaging; and all single-use plastics that are not easily recyclable or have additives that make them non-recyclable, including thermoset plastics.

Extend the ban on microbeads to include household and industrial cleaning products.

By 2021, require all new washing machines sold in Canada to have a removable, cleanable filter to capture micro-fibres that otherwise pass through water treatment plant filters and into water bodies.

Turn off the pollution taps flowing into coastal waters including municipal sewage and industrial effluents. Climate protection policies to prohibit new offshore oil and gas development and phase out existing operations will reduce the threat of marine oil spills.

To reduce and mitigate plastic waste from fishing gear that entangles and kills marine animals, by January 2021 implement an Extended Producer Responsibility program for all companies making or selling synthetic fishing gear which would fund the retrieval of lost or abandoned fishing gear, commonly known as ghost nets, and the collection and recycling of old, damaged, and recovered fishing gear.

Give Canadians the right to a healthy environment; Expand marine protected areas to 30% of territorial waters by 2030; Ramp up development and implementation of endangered species recovery plans; Commit $400m to create Indigenous-led protected and conserved areas.

Pass legislation to give Canadians the right to a healthy environment, promoting greater transparency in decision-making, public participation rights and access to judicial review mechanisms.

Expand marine protected areas from 10 to 30 per cent of Canada’s territorial waters by 2030.

Increase funding to federal departments to dramatically ramp up the development and implementation of endangered species recovery plans required by legislation, placing tight deadlines on completion and invoking emergency powers of the federal government to protect species when provincial governments fail to do so.

Protect a minimum of 30 per cent of freshwaters, oceans and land by 2030.

Commit $100 million annually over the next four years to create Indigenous-led protected and conserved areas and fund stewardship of these lands and waters by Indigenous guardians.

Fully restore the Canadian Environmental Assessment Act, which was gutted by the Harper government in 2012, and adopt the recommendations of the independent Expert Panel on Environmental Assessment, commissioned by the Liberals and then ignored.

Increase funding to Parks Canada to ensure that the ecological integrity of our national parks is maintained, and where necessary restored, and that heritage sites are fully protected and maintained.

Using the existing Green Infrastructure Fund, launch a national program to restore natural buffer zones along waterways; Invest in climate-proofing essential infrastructure, prioritizing drinking and waste water systems to protect against flooding, droughts, and contamination.

Establish a cross-party inner cabinet to deal with climate change, mandated to ensure Canada does its part to limit global warming to a level civilization can survive, and mitigate the effects of climate change.

Set targets for reducing use of pesticides through programmes to assist farmers in moving to organic farming; Revive and expand the National Pesticides Monitoring and Surveillance Network; Create a reporting database for to keep track of health impacts of pesticides; Ban neonics.

Strengthen CEPA; Invoke the precautionary principle in making decisions about approvals of products, substances, projects, and processes with potential for irreversible harm; Regulate microfibres as a toxic substance; Ban all toxic ingredients in personal care products.

Strengthen the Canadian Environmental Protection Act (CEPA) to limit the approval and use of toxic chemicals that affect our health and environment.

Regulate microfibres as a toxic substance under CEPA.

Invoke the precautionary principle in making decisions about approvals of products, substances, projects and processes where there is the potential for irreversible harm. If there is no scientific proof of safety, then approval will be withheld.

Jobs & the Economy

Establish a universal Guaranteed Livable Income programme; Establish a federal minimum wage of $15/hour; Work with the Council of Canadian Governments and StatsCan to set municipal minimum wages in accordance with the differential costs of living across Canada.

Establish a universal Guaranteed Livable Income (GLI) program to replace the current array of income supports, such as disability payments, social assistance and income supplements for seniors. Building on the MBM, payment would be set at a “livable” level for different regions of the country. The negotiation to implement a livable income across the country would take place through the Council of Canadian Governments. Unlike existing income support programs, additional income would not be clawed back. Those earning above a certain total income would pay the GLI back in taxes.

Revamp national trade policy to align with national and international climate change plans. This includes reducing the distances over which food is shipped by increasing domestic and local food production.

Protect supply management and ensure that products which are banned in Canada are not imported in food from other countries, for example bovine growth hormone in milk products.

Facilitate a global effort to reform the World Trade Organization. Building on General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) article XX, which was always intended to insulate legislated domestic conservation efforts from trade disciplines, revamp the World Trade Organization to the World Trade and Climate Organization to ensure that trade is consistent with a global carbon budget. Tariffs will be assigned based on the carbon intensity of imported products.

Renegotiate Canada’s trade and investment agreements to remove the Investor State Dispute Settlement (ISDS) provisions that give foreign corporations extraordinary powers to challenge the laws and policies of democratically elected governments, and include binding labour, health, safety and environmental standards.

Increase over time the target income replacement rate of the CPP form 25% to 50% of income received during working years; Require CPP divestment of coal, oil, and gas shares; Establish preeminence of pensioners during company insolvency proceedings.

Ensure the Canada Pension Plan (CPP) remains robust and adaptive to changing needs and circumstances by increasing over time the target income replacement rate from 25 per cent to 50 per cent of income received during working years.

Regulate the CPP Investment Board to require divestment of coal, oil and gas shares and ensure that all investments are ethical and promote environmental sustainability.

Protect private pensions by amending the Bankruptcy and Insolvency Act and Companies’ Creditors Arrangement Act to establish the preeminence of pensioners and the pension plan in the creditor hierarchy during company insolvency proceedings.

Embed just transition principles in planning, legislative, regulatory and advisory processes to ensure ongoing and concrete actions throughout the fossil-fuel phase-out transition, including:

Meeting directly with affected communities to learn about their local priorities, and to connect them with federal programs that could support their goals.

Establishing a dedicated, comprehensive, inclusive and flexible just transition funding program for affected communities.

Developing and implementing a just transition plan for workers in fossil fuel sectors, championed by a lead minister who oversees and reports on progress.

Integrating provisions for just transition in federal environmental and labour legislation and regulations, as well as relevant inter-governmental agreements.

Establishing a targeted, long-term research fund for studying the impact of the sector phase-out and the transition to a low-carbon economy.

Ensure locally available supports, including funding the establishment and operation of locally-driven transition centres in affected communities.

Identify and fund local infrastructure projects in affected communities.

Provide a pathway to retirement by creating a pension bridging program for workers who will retire earlier than planned due to the phase out.

Transition workers to sustainable employment by:

Creating a detailed and publicly available inventory with labour market information pertaining to oil, coal and gas workers, such as skills profiles, demographics, locations, and current and potential employers.

Creating a comprehensive funding program for workers staying in the labour market to address their needs across the stages of securing a new job, including income support, education and skills building, re-employment, and mobility.

Investing in comprehensive retraining and apprenticeship programs for industrial trades workers for jobs in the transition to a zero-carbon economy, especially the renewable and energy efficiency sectors.

Housing

Legislate housing as a legally protected fundamental human right for all Canadians and permanent residents; Appoint a Minister of Housing; Target 25,000 new and 15,000 rehabilitated units annually for the next 10 years; Increase funding; Create a co-op housing strategy.

Legislate housing as a legally protected fundamental human right for all Canadians and permanent residents.

Appoint a Minister of Housing to strengthen the National Housing Strategy so that it meets the needs for affordable housing that are unique to each province, and oversee its implementation in collaboration with provincial ministers. This recognizes that housing is provincial jurisdiction. The target would be 25,000 new and 15,000 rehabilitated units annually for the next 10 years.

Increase the National Housing Co-investment Fund by $750 million for new builds, and the Canada Housing Benefit by $750 million for rent assistance for 125,000 households.

Create a Canada Co-op Housing Strategy that would update the mechanisms for financing co-op housing, in partnership with CMHC, co-op societies, credit unions and other lenders.

Include new and existing housing as eligible infrastructure for funding purposes, allowing the Canada Infrastructure Bank to support provincial and municipal housing projects.

Provide financing to non-profit housing organizations and cooperatives to build and restore quality, energy efficient housing for seniors, people with special needs and low-income families.

Restore tax incentives for building purpose-built rental housing and provide tax credits for gifts of lands, or of land and buildings, to community land trusts to provide affordable housing.

Remove the “deemed” GST whenever a developer with empty condo units places them on the market as rentals.

Re-focus the core mandate of Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporate (CMHC) on supporting the development of affordable, non-market and cooperative housing, as opposed to its current priority of supporting Canadian lenders to de-risk investment in housing ownership. With many housing markets demonstrably overvalued, and home ownership rates among the highest in the world, individual home ownership should not be the preoccupation of a public service housing agency and a national housing strategy.

Change the legislation that prevents Indigenous organizations from accessing financing through CMHC to invest in self-determined housing needs.

Human Rights

Develop a Canada-wide action plan with a timetable and dedicated funding to eliminate violence against women, girls, and gender-diverse people; Implement the recommendations of the IMMIWG; Invest $40m over four years in the Shelter Enhancement Programme.

In collaboration with women’s and Indigenous organizations, develop a comprehensive Canada-wide plan of action – with a timetable and dedicated funding – to eliminate violence against women, girls and gender-diverse people.

Implement all the recommendations of the Inquiry on Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls.

Increase access to shelters by investing $40 million over four years in the Shelter Enhancement Program, providing more than 2,100 new and renovated spaces in first-stage shelters and hundreds of spaces in transition houses.

Ensure access to sexual health care and gender affirming health care, including hormone treatments and blockers, and gender confirmation surgeries; Ensure that trans, non-binary, and Two Spirit people, without undertaking surgeries, are able to alter their sex designation.

Ensure that trans*, non-binary, and Two Spirit people, without undertaking surgeries, are able to alter their sex designation on all federally-issued official documents, consistent with their gender identity.

Require accessible facilities in all federal buildings, including gender-neutral washrooms, changing facilities, etc. while also re-affirming trans, non-binary and Two Spirit people’s right to use whichever facilities with which they identify.

Reform sex work laws in Canada with a clear focus on harm reduction; Make the industry legal; Increase funding to bolster investigations and convictions in human trafficking cases; Increase funding of organizations helping those driven to sex work by economic deprivation.

Reform sex work laws in Canada with a clear focus on harm reduction, given the dangers that sex trade workers face. By making the industry legal and public, it will make it easier for those who are being trafficked to be found and saved.

Repeal all federal laws and policies that discriminate on the basis of sexuality, including Section 159 of the Criminal Code, and that refer to intersex reality as a defect, aberration, or by any other derogatory terms.

Fund community-driven education and awareness programmes that lead to a greater understanding of intersex realities and diversity of sexualities and gender identities, and referral programmes to direct for trans, non-binary, and Two Spirit people to appropriate services.

Education & Training

Allocate $10 billion to post-secondary and trade school supports; Make college and university tuition free for all Canadian students; Remove the 2% cap on increases in education funding for Indigenous students; Forgive extant student debt held by the federal government.

Make college and university tuition free for all Canadian students. This would be financed by redirecting existing spending on bursaries, tuition tax credits, saved costs of administering the student loan system, and the hundreds of millions of dollars of student loan defaults written off every year. Tuition scholarships provided by colleges and universities can be redirected to offset other student costs.

Tie funding in federal-provincial transfers to universities, providing more to universities and colleges with a measurable focus on student-professor contact, mentorship, policies of inclusion and tenure track hires.

Remove the two per cent cap on increases in education funding for Indigenous students and ensure all Indigenous youth have access to post-secondary education.

Forgive the portion of existing student debt that is held by the federal government.

Develop a clear framework for use of Deferred Prosecution Agreements and require the Director of Public Prosecutions to report on negotiated DPAs; Implement McLellan Report recommendations for a clear written exchange of views between ministers.

Lower federally set price for cannabis, making it competitive with illegal supplies; Eliminate requirements for excess packaging; Remove sales tax on medicinal products; Exempt CBD from the restrictions of the Prescriptions List.

Exempt CBD from the restrictions of the Prescriptions List, allowing hemp growers to produce it as a natural health product. This would strengthen the hemp industry and increase supply so those who use it for medicinal purposes do not have to purchase it illegally.

Reform the process of record suspensions for simple possession of cannabis to maximize fairness and accessibility for marginalized communities, and review the process of record suspensions as it applies to other offences.

Invoke federal powers for peace, order and good government to develop non-commercial aspects of forest management, such as massive tree planting, creating fire breaks and fire suppression, for climate change adaptation.

Renew the abandoned process of a National Forest Strategy, with the focus on restoring ecologically sound and climate resilient forests, and restoring forests as carbon sinks, in partnership with Indigenous Peoples. Orient federal forest science towards this goal.

Increase forest fire preparedness, including buying water bombers and ensuring they can be deployed rapidly in high-risk zones.

Fully implement the co-management provisions of the Oceans Act; Entrench owner-operator and fleet separation policies in the Fisheries Act; Implement the Standing Committee on Fisheries and Oceans report; Increase funding for research on fish stocks.

Protect independent harvesters and coastal communities by entrenching owner-operator and fleet separation policies in the Fisheries Act; and implement the 20 recommendations of the Standing Committee on Fisheries and Oceans report, West Coast Fisheries: Sharing Risks and Benefits.

Increase funding for research on fish stocks to improve management and protect endangered species in the face of rapidly changing ecosystems.

By 2025, move all open-net pen finfish aquaculture facilities into closed containment systems on land. As with land farmers transitioning from conventional production, provide financial and extension support to fish pen workers to make this transition.

Support the transition of the mining sector to an innovation hub for greener technologies, commercialized and attractive to export markets, including $40 million for the proposed Sudbury-based mining innovation cluster.

Regulate the immigration consulting industry to ensure universally fair, legal and accessible services to help people navigate the immigration system; Increase penalties for consultants convicted of human smuggling and devote more resources to investigation and enforcement.

Lead a national discussion to define the term “environmental refugee,” advocate for its inclusion as a refugee category in Canada, and accept an appropriate share of the world’s environmental refugees into Canada.

Ensure professionals being considered for immigration have the licensing requirements for their professions clearly explained before entry.

Work with professional associations to create a robust system for evaluating the education and training credentials of immigrants against Canadian standards, with the goal of expediting accreditation and expanding professional opportunities for immigrants.

Allocate much greater funding for training in official languages for new immigrants through earmarked transfers to the provinces for primary and secondary public school and free night school programmes.

Work with municipalities and provinces to improve integration of new Canadians into the multicultural fabric; Assist cultural organizations to obtain charitable status; Increase funding of multicultural associations providing immigrant support programmes.

Establish a programme to process ~200,000 people living in Canada without official status, with a pathway to permanent residency for those who qualify; Ensure "lost Canadians" being denied citizenship through archaic laws are protected and their citizenship restored.

Establish a program to process the estimated 200,000 people living in Canada without official status, providing a pathway to permanent residency for those who qualify.

Ensure the “lost Canadians” quietly being denied citizenship through archaic laws are protected and that their citizenship is restored. Although some significant progress has been made, some are still “lost.”

Implement the recommendation of the Standing Committee on Citizenship and Immigration to grant permanent resident status immediately to those who have refused or left military service in a war not sanctioned by the United Nations.

Improve the pathway for international students and foreign workers to Canadian permanent residency and citizenship.

Illicit Drugs & Overdoses

Address the opioid crisis as a health-care issue, not a criminal issue, by declaring a national health emergency. Recognize that fentanyl contamination is why deaths are more accurately described as poisonings than overdoses. Drug possession should be decriminalized, ensuring people have access to a screened supply and the medical support they need to combat their addictions. Increase funding to community-based organizations to test drugs and make Naloxone kits widely available to treat overdoses.

Ban sale of internal combustion engine passenger vehicles by 2030; Exempt new and used zero-emission vehicles from federal sales tax; Expand charging stations for electric vehicles; Use sustainable biofuels where electric and fuel cells are not viable.

Maximize emissions reductions in all transportation through the use of sustainably produced biofuels, made from waste wood by-products and used vegetable oils, where electric and fuel cells not viable, as is the case for fishing, mining and forestry equipment.

Enact the Via Rail Act to implement a passenger rail transportation policy. Invest $600 million in 2020-21, rising to $720 million by 2023 to develop regional rail networks and strengthen rail connections between regions. This will include building several sections of 10 km of track to avoid bottlenecks where heavy freight pushes passenger rail to the siding.

Build high-speed rail in the Toronto-Ottawa-Quebec City triangle and the Calgary-Edmonton corridor.

Develop a Green Freight Transport program to address greenhouse gas emissions and pollution in partnership with the freight industry, shipping companies and delivery businesses. Fund the re-routing of tracks for freight and rail yards away from populated areas and strengthen Canada’s rail safety rules, giving regulators the tools they need to protect neighbourhoods from train shipments of hazardous materials.

Agriculture & Food

Invest $2.5m/year into a land and quota trust program and farming apprenticeship programs to expand local small-scale agriculture; Set targets for domestic production; Rooftop gardens; Re-establish infrastructure for local food production; Preserve and record existing farmland.

Establish emissions targets; Fund research and support for farmers shifting to organic and regenerative farming systems; Renew the Environmental Farm Plan Program to help farmers protect wildlife habitat, maintain water quality; and improve soil quality.

Establish climate change emission targets for all components of the food system, including nitrogen fertilizer use, livestock production and transportation.

Fund research and extend support for farmers shifting from conventional to organic and regenerative farming systems which work with nature, not against it, to produce food.

Renew the national Environmental Farm Plan Program to help farmers protect wildlife habitat areas and marginal lands, maintain water quality in streams, lakes and aquifers, and retain and improve soil quality, increase carbon sequestration and decrease water requirements.

Adopt animal welfare legislation to prevent inhumane treatment of farm animals including in intensive factory farming operations. This will set minimum standards of treatment and have a timetable for phasing out intensive factory farming and other inhumane animal husbandry practices. It will set standards for distances live animals can be transported, and conditions for animals in slaughterhouses and auctions.

Indigenous Issues

Honour treaties and respect the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples; Make Indigenous nations equal partners in setting national policy priorities; Fully implement the TRC and MMIWG report; Develop a national strategy for housing, water, food, and healthcare.

The Green Party recognizes the call by the Royal Commission on Aboriginal Peoples (RCAP) for Indigenous self-determination. The Green Party acknowledges that Indigenous Peoples have stewarded lands and waters in their traditional territories for centuries. A Green government will respect Indigenous sovereignty over self-defined and self-governed lands – whether First Nations, Métis or Inuit – and respect all rights that their title to land entails, including the right to stewardship. We respect Inuit sovereignty over Inuit Nunagat. We support the full implementation of treaties and other self-government agreements between Canada and Indigenous governments. A Green government will uphold and fulfill Canada’s responsibilities in all agreements with Indigenous Peoples.

A Green government will re-introduce legislation to enshrine UNDRIP in Canadian law and implement the calls to action from the Truth and Reconciliation Commission and the Inquiry into Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls.

The Green Party rejects the Indian Act as racist and oppressive legislation and is committed to dismantling the Act in full partnership and with First Nations taking the lead role in the process. The Indian Act uses race-based criteria to define who is and who is not an Indian and infringes on the right of First Nations people to define themselves. Greens will support Indigenous Peoples’ work and efforts towards self-determination to ensure no one is left behind or excluded from their rightful heritage. While dismantling the Indian Act will be a complex exercise in which Indigenous Peoples have the deciding role, we will establish processes for self-governing Indigenous Peoples and nations who choose to “opt out” of the Indian Act.

A Green government will welcome a genuine nation-to-nation relationship with Indigenous Peoples in Canada that is truly grounded in the UNDRIP doctrine of free, prior and informed consent.

As described in the Democracy section, a Green government will create an inclusive policy and governance body – the Council of Canadian Governments. This will include Indigenous nations and peoples as equal partners with other levels of government in the development of shared national goals, and will be the vehicle for the revamped First Ministers’ meetings.

Greens endorse the comprehensive agenda prepared by the Assembly of First Nations for the 2019 election, covering a range of policy areas that address the inequities and mistreatment experienced by First Nations across Canada. These include measures relating to reconciliation, health, education, housing, climate change, environmental protection, justice, rights, economic development, infrastructure and skills training.

A Green government will pledge to work in good faith as partners with the AFN to achieve their agenda, only negotiating the priority allocation of funds in line with the Green Party’s commitment to fiscal responsibility. We will work with the Métis National Council and Congress of Aboriginal Peoples to meet the Supreme Court decision in Daniels with meaningful funding and action. We will respect and work with the Inuit through the Inuit Tapiriit Kanatami and respect their territory, covering one third of the land mass of Canada.

Remove 2% cap on increases in education funding for Indigenous students and ensure access to post-secondary education; Ensure every Indigenous child has access to quality education opportunities based on cultural, political, and social priorities of Indigenous governments.

Ensure that every First Nations, Métis and Inuit child has access to quality educational opportunities based on the expressed cultural, political and social priorities of the First Nations, Métis and Inuit governments, following meaningful consultation.

Support the development of Indigenous education curricula that are language and culture specific.

Increase access to post-secondary education for Indigenous youth by removing the two per cent funding cap, as well as fully funding the program backlog.

Support First Nations, Métis and Inuit in (re)building traditional knowledge systems around healing and wellness, including the formal inclusion of traditional healing within mental wellness and home and community care programs. This process must be led by First Nations, Métis and Inuit organizations.

End drinking water and boil water advisories by investing and upgrading critical infrastructure to ensure safe water access in every community.

Prioritize high quality safe and affordable housing, particularly in the north, and ensure an equitable distribution of resources for energy efficiency retrofits.

Improve food security in northern communities by consulting with residents on Arctic farming, working with non-profit groups to build greenhouses or hydroponic towers and funding education programs in nutrition and horticulture.

Support health-care services that incorporate traditional practices and recognize the role of extended families and elders.

Together with First Ministers and Indigenous leaders, revisit the Blueprint on Aboriginal Health: A 10-Year Transformative Plan abandoned in 2006.

In partnership with Indigenous Peoples, work towards the creation of an Indigenous Lands and Treaties Tribunal Act to establish an independent body that will decide on specific claims, ensuring that treaty negotiations are conducted and financed fairly and that treaty negotiations and claims resolutions do not result in the extinguishment of aboriginal and treaty rights.

Immediately implement the lands claims agreements already negotiated and languishing for lack of funding, particularly for First Nations in the territories.

Ensure that negotiations of treaties and self-government are not based on the extinguishment of Indigenous title and rights, and on assimilation, but on reconciliation of rights and title, and that negotiations recognize the diversity of traditional self-governance.

Formally repudiate the doctrine of terra nullius, the doctrine of discovery, and other doctrines of superiority; Establish processes for self-governing Indigenous Peoples and nations to transition out form under the Indian Act; Implement UNDRIP and RCAP recommendations.

Formally repudiate the doctrine of terra nullius, the doctrine of discovery, and other doctrines of superiority.

With Indigenous leaders at the helm, establish processes for self-governing Indigenous Peoples and nations to transition out from under the Indian Act, grounding this in the doctrine of free, prior, and informed consent.

Implement the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples and reform all judicial, legislative, and executive branches of the federal government so that they are consistent with the Declaration.

Implement the recommendations of the 1996 Report of the Royal Commission on Aboriginal Peoples.

Affirm the inherent right of Indigenous communities to determine child and family services. Support kinship ties and ensure sufficient funding and resources so that families are kept together.

Include representatives from First Nations, Métis, and Inuit governments on the Council of Canadian Governments to improve policy coherence and optimize public spending with respect to higher order policy priorities

Implement the Calls to Action from the TRC, and recommendations from the IMMIWG; Work in partnership with the AFN to implement their agenda for the 2019 election; Support and sustain transmission, proliferation, and regeneration of Indigenous cultural works and languages.

Implement the Calls to Action from the Truth and Reconciliation Commission, as well as the recommendations from the Inquiry into Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls.

Work in partnership with the Assembly of First Nations to implement their agenda for the 2019 election.

Ensure that every First Nations, Métis and Inuit child has access to quality educational opportunities based on the expressed cultural, political and social priorities of the First Nations, Métis and Inuit governments, following meaningful consultation.

Support the development of Indigenous education curricula that are language and culture specific.

Increase access to post-secondary education for Indigenous youth by removing the two per cent funding cap, as well as fully funding the program backlog.

Support and sustain the transmission, proliferation, and regeneration of Indigenous cultural works and languages.

Educate non-Indigenous Canadians on the histories, customs, traditions and cultures of the First Nations, Métis and Inuit peoples of Turtle Island.

Enact Right to Repair legislation requiring producers to provide consumers or repair shops with replacement parts, software, and tools for diagnosing, maintaining, or repairing their products, and reset any security that may disable the device during diagnosis or repair.

Enact Right to Repair legislation that requires producers to provide consumers or repair shops with replacement parts, software and tools for diagnosing, maintaining or repairing their products, for a fair price, and to reset any electronic security that may disable the device during diagnosis, maintenance or repair.

Strike a parliamentary committee to examine the implications of introducing 5G technology, including security issues and impacts on weather forecasting, and make recommendations on how and if Canada should proceed.

Require the Communications Security Establishment & CSIS to get a warrant before intruding on Canadians' communications; Increase powers of Privacy Commissioner; Regulate Internet privacy protections. Regulate social media platforms to have only verifiable identities can publish.

Change the law to require the Communications Security Establishment and CSIS to get a warrant before intruding on Canadians’ communications.

Prohibit the routine surveillance of Canadians who protest against the government and the sharing of protesters' and NGO staff information with the National Energy Board, and others.

Significantly increase the powers of the Privacy Commissioner, in particular to protect identity and personal data, and to enforce privacy laws.

Require companies to grant access to all information they hold on an individual, and to delete personal information from company databases when requested by that person. Individuals would have the “right to be forgotten.”

Invest in scientific research and implement funding recommendations from Canada's Fundamental Science Review; Enhance funding for granting councils; Establish a portal for all government science to be available in a comprehensible form.

Invest in scientific research and implement the full funding recommendations from Canada’s Fundamental Science Review.

Enhance funding for the granting councils, including the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council (NSERC), the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada and the Canadian Institutes for Health Research.

Restore and augment Climate Change and Atmospheric Research (CCAR) funding to NSERC and ensure ongoing funding for the Polar Environment Atmospheric Research Laboratory, which the Liberals failed to restore after the funding ran out.

Commit to full implementation of Scientific Integrity Policies for all government departments.

Establish a portal where all government science, including the evidence the government uses to make decisions, is available to Canadians in a comprehensible form.

Adopt policies similar to Europe’s “Plan S” to ensure that scientific publications based on publicly-funded research are available in open access journals or on the portal.

Supports NSERC’s Framework on Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion in scientific research, and commit to strengthening Canadian scientific and engineering communities to include the full participation of equity-seeking groups, including women, visible minorities, Indigenous Peoples, people with diverse gender identities and people with disabilities.

Strike a parliamentary committee to examine the range of issues related to the development of AI. Recommendations would form the basis of a legislative and regulatory framework to govern the ethical, environmental, social and economic implications of widespread dispersion of AI technologies.

Bring in a Guaranteed Liveable Income to reduce anxiety as the world of work is disrupted in ways we cannot predict.

Eliminate tuition to increase education and trade level skills to adapt to change.

Institute a tax for large corporations that is the equivalent to the income tax paid by employees who have been laid off due to AI. Small businesses will be exempt.

Use this tax revenue to fund educational and transition programs for laid-off workers, including trade schools.

Protect consumers and investors from cryptocurrency fraud or theft, and direct Revenue Canada and law enforcement agencies to develop practical methods for preventing the use of cryptocurrencies for money laundering and funding terrorism.

Government & Democracy

Strengthen the Conflict of Interest Act to include financial and other penalties for breaking the law; Impose strict conflict of interest screening criteria for appointments to federal regulatory boards and agencies.

Ensure that the 2019 election is the last "first past the post" election; Launch a Citizens Assembly on Electoral Reform mandated to make recommendations on an electoral system that would "make every vote count"; Recommendations would be implemented in time for the 2023 election.

Ensure that the 2019 election is the last “first past the post” election. By March 2020, we will launch a Citizens Assembly on Electoral Reform with the mandate to make recommendations to parliament on an electoral system that would “make every vote count.” Legislative changes to implement the recommendations of the Citizens Assembly would be made in time for the 2023 federal election.

Remove the requirement for party leaders to sign candidate nominations, accepting proof of a fair and open process at the local (Electoral District Association) level.

Require all parties to submit their campaign platform cost estimates to the Parliamentary Budget Officer for review.

Mandate Elections Canada to develop a truth in advertising framework for election campaigns that empowers the Commissioner of Elections to investigate citizens’ complaints related to campaign advertising and impose sanctions if the complaints are found to be justified.

Direct the Speaker to enforce existing rules to minimize the power of party whips over individual MPs; Set up an all-party commission to select a board deciding Governor-in-Council appointments; Strengthen the role and independence of parliamentary officers.

Direct the Speaker to enforce existing rules to minimize the power of party whips over individual members of parliament.

Strengthen the role and protect the independence of parliamentary officers including the Ombudsman, the Auditor General, the Ethics Commissioner, the Information Commissioner, the Commissioner of Official Languages and the Parliamentary Budget Officer.

Set up an all-party commission to select a five-member board that will make decisions regarding Governor-in-Council appointments and select candidates for parliamentary officers.

Replace the secretive Board of Internal Economy with an independent oversight committee to review MPs’ salaries, expenses and office budgets.

Establish a public investigations office reporting to parliament to provide clearer and permanent operating rules for such investigations.

Scrap all fees except the filing fee on Access to Information requests; Provide enforceable deadlines; Authorize the Information Commissioner to order the release of information; Place the administration of parliament, the PMO, and ministers' offices within ATI.

Establish a Council of Canadian Governments, including federal, provincial, territorial, local, and Indigenous governments, to set higher order policy priorities, with the goal of optimizing public spending.

Encourage City Charters to give more autonomy to cities; Reduce interest rates to municipalities on loans for infrastructure; Create a Municipal Fund for federal transfers to municipalities, with double current funding; Allocate 1% of GDP to municipal infrastructure and housing.

Reestablish the Canadian International Development Agency to provide overseas development assistance, untied to Canadian business interests or strategic geopolitics; Increase overseas development assistance to 0.7% of GDP.

Re-establish the Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA) that was dismantled by the Harper government, with a mandate to provide overseas development assistance where it is most needed. Eliminate the requirement that aid be tied to Canadian business interests overseas, or strategic geopolitics.

Increase Canada’s overseas development assistance budget to reach former Prime Minister Pearson’s goal of 0.7 per cent of GDP, which Canada has never achieved but which many in the donor group of our allies have already surpassed.

Ramp up our national contribution to the Green Climate Fund and Global Environmental Facility to $4 billion per year by 2030.

Review federal government policy to align with the 17 Sustainable Development Goals and develop a mechanism to track progress in meeting these targets both at home and abroad.

Lead an international effort to bring international shipping and aviation into the Paris framework. Introduce an international tax for aviation and shipping fuels earmarked for the Global Climate Fund.

Increase funding to CBC and Radio Canada by $315 million per year until the per-capital level of funding is equal to that of the BBC; Reform the governance of CBC - Radio Canada to remove potential for political interference in board appointments.

Dedicate resources to making a universal, affordable, early learning and child-care system; Increase federal child care funding to achieve at least 1% of GDP, with an additional $1 billion each year until 1% is reached; eliminate GST on construction costs for child-care spaces.

A Green government will collaborate with provinces/territories, local communities, Indigenous communities and the child-care sector to ensure that a comprehensive short-, medium- and long-term policy road map – based on the principles of universality, affordability, quality, inclusivity and equity – finally becomes a reality.

Canada must dedicate additional resources to making a universal, affordable, early learning and child-care (ELCC) system a reality. It cannot occur without public funding. Canada needs an ELCC system that contributes to a green Canada. Thus, a Green Party government's child care plan will provide the early educator jobs that sustain local communities. It will also recognize that sparsely and unevenly available child-care services force parents to take out-of-their-way routes to child care and work, often by car. Green Party plans for child care take into account not only parents' convenience but also climate goals. Location of child care must reflect the diversity of family needs and be placed along existing public transit routes, including neighbourhood schools, other local buildings, workplaces and transportation hubs.

The best evidence suggests that ELCC is best situated within the context of other policies that support families and children. A Green Party government will follow the example of Quebec and other countries, improving and strengthening maternity/parental leave by making it more inclusive, more flexible and better paid.

Well-designed ELCC is also fundamental to meeting broader equity and social justice goals, for fighting poverty, as a foundation for children's life-long learning, and as part of the backbone of a thriving society. Quality child care yields high social and economic returns in the short and long term by:

- Supporting women’s workforce participation, education and training.

- Strengthening children’s health, development and well-being in the early years to provide a strong foundation for learning and living in later years.

- Strengthening inclusion and respect for diversity for children with disabilities, diverse ethnic and racial groups, newcomers and disadvantaged Canadians.

- Countering Canada’s slide towards being a more unequal society.

A Green Party government will immediately begin to ramp up federal child care funding to achieve the international benchmark of at least one per cent of GDP annually, adding an additional $1 billion each year until this benchmark is reached with a mature ELCC system. We will eliminate GST on all construction costs related to child-care spaces.

Military & Veterans

Provide support for all veterans; Launch a national re-examination of veterans' issues; Restore periodic payments to pre-2006 levels; Repeal denial of pensions to spouses who married after 60; Update the Veterans Charter; Ensure access to health care, and mental health support.

Provide support for all veterans including disabled veterans that allows them to live in dignity. Ensure that services to veterans and their family members are fully integrated and funded.

Launch a national re-examination of veterans’ issues in December 2019 based on good-faith engagement with military families and veterans, including issues relating to pensions and benefits. The goal is to identify necessary reforms and changes to programs to better meet veterans’ needs.

In the meantime, restore periodic payments to veterans at pre-2006 levels.

Repeal the section of the Superannuation Act the denies pensions to surviving spouses of certain workers, including RCMP and veterans, who married after 60.

Work with veterans’ organizations to review and update the Veterans Charter and the processes, structure and mandate of the Veterans Review and Appeal Board to ensure all veterans are treated fairly and with respect.

Ensure that all veterans have access to health care, mental health support and treatments. Military personnel with PTSD must be treated as highly valued people whose health needs to be restored, rather than as liabilities who need to be removed.

Establish an arm’s length Federal Tax Commission to analyze the tax system for fairness and accessibility, based on the principle of progressive taxation. The last Tax Commission was in the 1960s, so reform is long overdue. This will include recommending an appropriate way to tax cryptocurrencies.

Close tax loopholes that benefit the wealthy. The stock option loophole is one of the most expensive and unfair tax loopholes. Executives with stock options as part of their remuneration package only pay half the rate of income tax on this portion of their income. The capital gains loophole allows people and corporations to only add half of their capital gains to their taxable income, while those with only employment income pay taxes on their entire income. Over 90 per cent of the value of this tax break goes to the richest 10 per cent, and about 85 per cent goes to the top one per cent.

End offshore tax dodging by taxing funds hidden in offshore havens and requiring companies to prove that their foreign affiliates are actual functioning businesses for tax purposes. Provide adequate funding to the Canada Revenue Agency (CRA) to collect tax revenue hiding in offshore tax havens. Several Auditors General have recommended that the CRA should focus on people who hide vast wealth, rather than conduct random audits of ordinary Canadians.

Apply a corporate tax on transnational e-commerce companies doing business in Canada by requiring the foreign vendor to register, collect and remit taxes where the product or service is consumed. The e-commerce sector – giants like Netflix, Facebook, Amazon, Google, and Uber command a significant share of the Canadian market but pay virtually no tax.

Impose a financial transactions tax of 0.2 per cent in the finance sector as France has done since 2012.

Eliminate all fossil fuel subsidies, including payments and tax write-offs, valued at several billion dollars annually. These include the accelerated capital cost allowance on liquefied natural gas (LNG) and tax write-offs for oil and gas wells, coal mining exploration and development, flow-through share deductions for coal, oil and gas projects, and oil and gas properties. Despite a promise 10 years ago to eliminate subsidies to fossil fuel companies, these subsidies have actually expanded for fracking and LNG development.

Increase the federal corporate tax rate from 15 to 21 per cent to bring it into line with the federal rate in the United States, our biggest trading partner. Mark Carney, former Governor of the Bank of Canada, said corporations are holding “hundreds of billions of dollars in their bank accounts,” rather than reinvesting in the economy. This dead money needs to be mobilized for the transition to a green, renewable economy.

Maintain the current level of taxation for small business.

Charge a five per cent surtax on commercial bank profits. Commercial banks accumulate huge profits – $43.15 billion for the five largest banks in 2018 alone. {{{toMarkdown}}}18{{{toMarkdown}}} . Credit unions, caisses populaires and co-ops will be exempt.

Prohibit Canadian businesses from deducting the cost of advertising on foreign-owned sites such as Google and Facebook which now account for 80 per cent of all spending on advertising Canada.

Eliminate the 50 per cent corporate meals and entertainment expense deduction, which includes season tickets and private boxes at sporting events.

Increase the tax credit for volunteer firefighters and search and rescue volunteers.

In the first year of the next parliament, promote and implement a modernized Official Languages Act to protect both national languages; Ensure funding for the protection of Indigenous languages at risk of disappearing.